Artist’s rendition of Benjamin Hunter. (We’ll update later with a real photo. We apologize for scaring you.)

As we’ve heard from multiple players in this postseason and in years past, competing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs is one of the most intense and stressful things that many of these players will ever go through. Most of them have tried to simplify their lives as much as they’re able, but for Braden Holtby, simplifying completely was just not possible.

That’s because his fiancee, Brandi Bodnar, was pregnant, and her due date was right around the time of the playoffs. Braden himself has not spoken about this to the media, he’s simply continued to focus on the task at hand while, we assume, at least part of his thoughts were off the ice with his fiancee and future child.

Congratulations to this fine family! Good timing, too. Holtby now has a great excuse for not changing any diapers and sleeping through the night. That should be motivation enough to get him through mid-June.